Pros
WJP is a respected organization in the rule of law and justice space and essentially the sole producer of cross-country/global data on these themes. While some other reviews complain of limited growth opportunities, I’ve found WJP to be a place where staff at junior and mid-levels who demonstrate curiosity, the ability to proactively manage up, and a willingness to work hard were given opportunities to grow and move up the organizational ladder in a way that is not possible in larger organizations. I’ve worked with multiple staff at WJP who joined at the assistant or associate level and eventually advanced to a director-level position or higher. The work is interesting. On the Research side, staff at all levels have opportunities to learn about different methods of survey research, contribute to data visualization and storytelling, and to be individually acknowledged in research publications. WJP’s Engagement work provides opportunities to meet with governments and develop professional networks with peer research and development organizations. Most staff are friendly and there is a nice sense of team camaraderie (though this has deteriorated in recent years). Most benefits (PTO, parental leave, health insurance) are generous and a concerted effort has been made to make WJP’s salaries more competitive in recent years.
Cons
WJP has a serious burnout problem, especially among mid-level managers and higher. Staff often work into the wee hours of the morning and on weekends, through vacations, and while ill or caring for ill family members. Multiple staff members have taken unplanned leaves of absence in recent years to recover from burning out and crashing. I personally went through a period of several years where I spent every weekday hour that I wasn’t sleeping or commuting working…and I wasn’t sleeping much either. Senior leadership has paid lip service to improving work-life balance at times but takes zero institutional responsibility for the culture, workload, staffing structures, and institutional processes that fuel this burnout. WJP’s leadership has touted work-life balance as a priority in one breath, and in the next, committed to doing even more with fewer staff, less time, and with insufficient (or no) funding. WJP has a large and expensive leadership team, and a moderate number of mid-level directors and managers who are tasked with executing a massive amount of programmatic and administrative work with little to no managerial support staff. WJP is also chronically underfunded. Only a handful of staff are capable of writing proposals and bringing in revenue for the organization. WJP often accepts projects where the funding did not cover the cost of the key personnel required to execute the project, let alone any of the organization’s overhead costs. WJP maintains expensive programmatic activities that are not fundable/revenue generating because they are tied to the founder’s vision, and compensates for this by under-staffing other parts of the organization. The organization suffers from a demoralizing level dysfunction and chaos. There is little formal project or work planning, and even less accountability when it comes to adhering to internal or external deadlines. Processes related to fundraising, finance, and operations are confusing, onerous, and a major drain on the time of programmatic staff. For many years, WJP was a dynamic, fun, and slightly quirky place to work, but this culture has deteriorated as decision-making became more closed and top-down. Issues related to staffing, fundraising, and general dysfunction have bred silos and resentment, and eroded staff morale.
